An Accessible Way to Watch Super Bowl LII

I’m not much of a football fan. I am, however, a huge fan of new assistive technology, especially when you can try it out for free. So that’s why I’m going to attend AIRA’S Virtual Super Bowl party this Sunday

Aira calls itself a “visual interpreter for the blind,” and on Sunday Greg Stilson, a football fan who is blind will be at the game in Minneapolis sporting wearable smart glasses with an embedded video camera. Trained and certified AIRA agents who aren’t even at the game will use smartphone and portable WiFi hotspot technology to describe what’s in front of Greg remotely in real-time. Here’s how the AIRA web site describes it:

The trained agents see the world through the smart glass worn by the customer and describe the view. They respond to requests for information from the user, working at a specially-designed dashboard that efficiently connects to information via the video camera, GPS, and other sources of data.

Usually you need to subscribe to AIRA to connect with their trained sighted guides to have them describe stuff for you through their special glasses, but You don’t need to be an Aira subscriber to listen in this Sunday. Anyone can join the party starting at 6:00 p.m. ET by doing any of the following: